Our security guard Lockmo comes over in the evenings to check on us and last night he gave me a healthy dose of South African wisdom. Lockmo's been living on his own for the past 2 years trying to save up to buy a cow. Why? Because his wife left him and a cow is the way to get her back. He was vague on the details, but effectively his wife was convinced that Lockmo had cheated on him with the secretary at Lockmo's place of work. He said they were innocent SMS messages, but when his wife caught wind of the situation she poured a boiling pot of porridge on him and told him to move out of their house in Zimbabwe. Lockmo sustained burns and had to go to the hospital over this incident.
Now he's been working in Cape Town for 2 years so he can buy a cow to give to her parents so they will tell her to return to him. He says that even though he doesn't feel as though he did anything wrong that the past 2 years of work will be worth it to have her back because she's the one that he wants to have 13-15 children with. Love is pain, he reports. Love is searing porridge on your bare chest and love is 2 years alone far from home and your only son. I will find out when I grow up, he says, that love hurts.
I wonder when precisely this event of growing up happens. When do you stop running towards greener pastures and buy the cow? That's commitment, man.
Love from Leslie Commerce Computer Lab,
A
african men are notorious cheaters....
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